Recovering From A Power Failure/Outage or Surge

Power outages and surges are like backups - once you suffer enough inconvenience or enough data loss you'll go "hmmm, I think Brock was absolutely right about getting a Power UPS to help reduce unnecessary stress in the clinic!"


* * Do NOT skip any of these steps as data corruption can be sneaky & let you logon just fine & not destroy your data for another few weeks!!
 
Main machines with RAID drives:  You need to consider that the drives might be in the process of rebuilding when  your computer comes back from a power loss.  In this case do NOT touch your computer as it could take up to 4 hours to complete.  If you are unsure 
about your RAID computer contact your technical support that manages your office hardware. 


1. Completely Power Down
- close all your programs on each machine

 - go into My Computer, right click on your C: drive, click Properties on the popup menu, go to the Tools tab, click [Check Now], and then [Start]
 
- Windows 8 & 10 will start and run that scan immediately
Windows 7 will complain that it can't do this while you are using the computer & ask if you want to do it next time you startup, say [Yes] or [Schedule disk check] (depending on your operating system)

- turn off all your non-primary computers first (don't select to restart, you want to shutdown), these are the computers that do NOT have the data file on them

- once they are all off, turn off your primary computer (where the data is)

- unplug the power from all your printers, scanners, and any other devices that use the network

- power off your router/switch (where all your network cables go into), typically this just means pulling out the power cable if no power button (I always tuck the power cable under the unit so I know which unit this power cable came from)

- power off your cable/adsl modem (this is the similar looking box that your internet comes into), again, this typically means pulling the power out & tucking the power cable under the unit

- take a moment to enjoy the silence of no computer hardware running (I love these quiet little moments)


2. Power Up Primary Equipment ONLY
- power on your cable/adsl modem first & give it a minute to collect its thoughts

- power on your router/switch & give it a minute as well

 - turn on your PRIMARY computer only - keep in mind that because you set it to check disk it will startup once, do the check disk & then startup a second time (I mention this because if it does not do a check disk, when you logon the first time I would set it to do the check disk & then restart the computer again - a check disk is VERY important at this point)
**Again Windows 8 & 10 machines this would have already run when you scanned

 - open the CS5BackUp (Sunflower icon) and let a back up run
**v4 open up the chirosuite Toolbox & do a Repair, Compact & Backup 
 
 - after it completes successfully, open up chirosuite Do Not Log On, click the green square with the white check mark on the top left of the log on screen to check for and run the latest chirosuite update 
**for v4 stay in the toolbox and use the [Check for chirosuite Update] button to download & update to the last version again

- open chirosuite & verify that your data looks like it did, last checkouts, etc... if everything doesn't look like it should then STOP IMMEDIATELY & call technical support


3. Power Up All Other Computers
- at this point you can power on all your other computers - again, they should restart twice due to the check disk, if they do not then set them to check disk once you are in & restart them again

 - either run the chirosuite Updater right from the log on screen in chirosuite or Start menu (or the Toolbox), whichever is easier (If there was a new version available when you updated each of your secondary machines will need to be updated before they can connect again.)

- when you go to logon I would do the machines 1 by 1 so that you give each time to setup for the new version you just put in & to watch for any issues


4. Power Up All Other Equipment
- at this point you can turn on all the printers & everything else, having cycled the power on all the computers the spools & everything else should be clear


5. Do the Happy Dance
- that's right, dance :)


 You should be good but do watch for oddities in patient accounts, reports, and generally everywhere!  Power loss causes the hard drives (that spin at 7200-15000 rpm) to stop suddenly & this almost always causes corruption of some sort - sometimes in chirosuite, sometimes in other programs!  
 
* * If you have a UPS and it failed.  Know that UPS software NEEDS to be installed when you do use an Uninterrupted Power Supply.  This gives you anywhere from 5-10 minutes to print off anything you might need (schedules) and properly close/exit all programs you are running. Once all programs closed shut down your computer.   With this you should never need the above steps unless your power goes out during the night so then a check disk is the minimum IF all your programs are exited each day.  
 
It is amazing what downloading and installing all of your windows updates can fix as well as making sure your antivirus is up to date (both the virus signature data base and software update).  
 

 

 Email Help@chirosuite.ca or Call toll free at 855.509.1111 

 

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Feedback

great article, thanks!
bdenys (11/10/2014 at 9:26 AM)